Late night comics change tune, bash Democrats

A study of gags by late-night comics during the first half of the year found an abrupt change from 2012. Now Obama and Democrats are providing the lion’s share of punchlines.

Obama was the target of 288 monologue jokes made by Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel, according to an analysis released Monday by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University.

The next most joked-about individual was New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, at 120. His numbers are likely to jump fast, since the study period was before the second round of Weiner’s sexting scandal.

In 2012, Mitt Romney was the butt of more than twice as many jokes as Obama, and Republicans were similarly the target of more than double the jokes that were made on Democrats.

The findings don’t illustrate any political change of heart among late-night comics, said Robert Lichter, the center’s president. The jokes follow the news, and with Republicans receding after an election campaign, Obama presented more opportunities, he said.

“They’re going after the most visible and powerful people that they can,” Lichter said.

Even Letterman, who is generally harder on Republicans, couldn’t resist joining in this time.

“People always say to me, they say, `Hey, Letterman,’ they say. `Why don’t you make jokes about Obama?’ And I say, `All right, I’ll tell you why. I don’t make jokes about him because I don’t want the FBI tapping my phone,”‘ he said.

Leno tapped into the same idea with a different story: “I was going to start off tonight with an Obama joke, but I don’t want to get audited by the IRS, so forget that.”

A signifcant portion of low information voters get their “news” from the monolgues on late night TV. They probably won’t be voting anyway but the switch to targeting Democrats is significant. Humor and satire as weapons have been employed by the left against conservatives for years. It makes the opposition seem smaller and suggests not taking them seriously.

It probably won’t have much of a real world effect on politics, but taken together with an increased focus by the media on Obama and the Democrats, it certainly can’t hurt.